An 80-year-old woman was permanently banned from her local YMCA pool in Washington state after allegedly disrespecting a transgender employee.
The incident occurred on July 26 at the Mountain View pool in Port Townsend when Julie Jaman said that she was alerted when she “heard a man’s voice” while she was showering in the women’s locker room.
“I saw a man in a woman’s bathing suit watching maybe four or five little girls pulling down their suits in order to use the toilet,” she recalled of the July incident to Seattle radio show host Dori Monson on Friday. “I asked if he had a penis and he said it was none of my business. I told that man to ‘get out right now.’”
Jaman then alerted a staff member to the incident and was stunned when she was told that she was “being discriminatory,” and “was banned from the pool forever.”
“She didn’t ask me what the problem was, if I was okay, nothing about me,” the octogenarian told Monson. “It’s as if she was just waiting to pounce on me. It was just stunning.”
While no official police report was filed, the Port Townsend Police Department provided an incident report on the matter.
“Jaman had an emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom near young girls, and is hoping to not be trespassed from the pool,” the New York Post reported. “The report also noted a phone call from the YMCA detailing that Jaman was reportedly in the facility’s locker room screaming at an employee and refusing to leave.”
Erin Hawkins, the marketing and communications manager for the Olympic Peninsula YMCA, told Fox News that Jaman’s permanent suspension was not solely due to the singular incident in the women’s locker room.
“Julie Jaman was permanently suspended from the Mountain View Pool due to her repeatedly violating our Code of Conduct, specifically, using disrespectful words or gestures toward YMCA staff or others; abusive, harassing and/or obscene language or gestures toward YMCA staff or others,” Hawkins said on Monday.
Jaman has since held a protest outside the pool facility and was joined by supporters, advocating that there should be warnings that the bathrooms were also used by trans individuals.
“Our pool is a very old pool. We just have two shower rooms, dressing rooms, one for men, one for women,” she continued in the radio interview.
